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The T5 Dominion ships (the old Dreadnought Cruiser and Escort Carrier) are for the entire account, which is cool:
Pre-existing ships everybody's seen before. Nice to see ships that have vanished from the infinity lockbox come back in some form, maybe we'll see others do this.

The T6 ships are Dominion purchased, but mastery opens them account wide:
Vanguard Raider (posted above). Description says it's more maneuverable than the Dominion War attack ships, and... Jeeze, that thing's up there with some shuttles, so I imagine this thing'll be in the same speed league as the Risian Corvette.
Vanguard Dreadnought
Vanguard Warship

Why are they all called Vanguard? Vanguard isn't a ship class, but a new breed of Jem'hadar (like the distinct Gamma and Alpha breeds from DS9) bred for the heaviest combat, who get all the best ships, apparently.

Cardassian ships are available for all factions out-of-the-gate:

Damar-class intel science dreadnought (posted above)
Ghemor-class intel flight deck cruiser. Doesn't have the swing wings we speculated a few weeks ago, does have a cloaking device, however.
Detapa-class intel escort... Seems an odd choice to name an intel cruiser after the civilian government that opposed both the military and the Obsidian Order, but Cardassians always did have a weird cultural identity.

Nice varied designs, something Cardassians needed even as NPCs with how many styles some groups have picked up. Nice to see the Cardassian race get to fly its own ships, but kind of disappointing that they're just open to everybody.

Out of nowhere the Delta recruitment event starts again today. The rewards are not nearly as good as the Temporal event, but if you missed it the first time it might be worth checking out. No word of it coming to console, but I wouldn't be shocked to see it turn up there as well.

Don't forget you don't need to finish the whole thing in the time period, just get the transponder device thing (which I think is just after the tutorial)

The new galaxy map. Gamma Quadrant map is 5x4 sectors, smaller than hinted in the past but plenty bigger than the Delta Quadrant. Lore rundown of what's what:

Left to right, top to bottom:

Coladri: Not a canon planet, however, Coladrium was an energy source used by Tosk and Hunter vessels.
Kurill: The ancient homeworld of the race that became the Vorta. Eris called herself a Kurillian initially, which may or may not be a lie, depending on how you look at it.
Masan: ?
Kendari/Kendi: No idea
Teplan: The planet the Dominion tried to wipe out with the Blight.
Gavara: Where the crew was when they received the distress call from Teplan
Baen: ?
Callinon: The site of a subspace relay the Karemma used to contact their Dominion overlords
Yadera: Probably Yadera Prime, a planet destroyed by the Dominion.
Gaia: A planet encased in an impenetrable field of quantum whatchamafuckit. In an alternate timeline, the Defiant was thrown back in time and crashed here, establishing a human(ish) colony that survived 200 years before Odo erased it from history for the slim chance that maybe his past self could someday bone Kira.
Idran: We visited this system in Operation Gamma, it's the supergiant star closest to the other end of the Wormhole.
Stakoron: Source of Mizinite, a metal used in Dominion starship construction of economic interest to Grand Nagus Zek and former Acting Grand Nagus Quark.
Kartan: ? Probably related to Kar-telos somehow.
Kar-Telos: B-class star with an unusually large and dense asteroid belt, the Defiant performed maneuvers there to make sure Quark lost the other half of his regulars during the Bajoran Time of Cleansing when he lost half his regulars.
Telosar: ? Interesting name pairing between Kartan and Telosar with Kar-Telos in between them.
New Yadera: Probably Yadera II, inhabited by the last survivor of Yadera Prime, who surrounds himself with holographic simulacra of his lost life.
New Bajor: Bajor's first interstellar colony world, which for reasons they put on the other side of the goddamn galaxy when there's perfectly good uninhabited worlds much closer, even inside Federation space. Because of this poor location selection, the New Bajor colony was massacred by the Jem'hadar. Garak claimed to hope to find survivors from the colony, but there were no Bajoran prisoners among the alpha and beta quadrant races held in Camp 371.
Ennis: Dominion prison moon where death is abolished. Anyone who dies on the planet is resurrected by magical bacteria, but once this happens you can't leave the planet without dying shortly after. The population spends half of their time killing each other and the other half being dead. Kai Opaka died on the moon, and upon resurrecting chose to stay behind and spread the Good News of the Prophets.
Torad: A planet with super interesting plants. So interesting that after a visit there, Kira ended up pregnant with O'Brien's child.
Dideria: ?
M'Brii: ?
Umbra: ?

They briefly posted two news articles and then pulled them today. One was for the Gamma Quadrant battle zone, which I didn't see, nobody reposted anywhere I can find, and Google failed to cache, but it's still in the launcher.

In addition to the server-wide endeavor missions, everybody gets 3 personal endeavors (easy, medium, and hard). These are per-account, not per-character, like the server one.

In addition to a prize box like the server-wide endeavor, you get endeavor experience. Endeavor experience is account-wide, and when you level up in it, you get an endeavor perk point. Each perk picks three random stats, you can pick one of those three to increase. Permanently. Account wide. Stacking with multiple applications to a stat.

Test server screenshot:
Somebody has grossly misinformed the captain of Quark's Triumph about how to dock with DS9. I don't actually know what would happen if you tried to dock with a torpedo tube, but nothing good I'm sure.

So Victory is Life has a new reputation, because of course it has a new reputation. Nothing really excited me except for the T5 active power: One Little Ship. If you remember the episode name, you know where this is going.

Ground power: Activating this trait will summon a miniaturized Danube Runabout to fly around and shoot Phaser Beam Arrays and Photon Torpedoes at nearby foes for a short duration.

DS9's exterior is also getting a remodel, based on a model made by the guy who did the Enterprise-D for the HD bluray remaster. He did DS9, the Defiant, and the Danube hoping to have them already done to sell to CBS for a potential DS9 HD remaster. He missed out on that, but now they're going to be in STO. He originally put a low-poly copy of the promenade behind the windows, but the station was already a graphics hog and you have to jam your nose into the habitat ring to see anything so it got cut.

There was a twitch stream yesterday (here) which covered a few things, including a look at a couple of the new ships and a bit of Jem character creation. Very useful info though is that it confirmed suspicions that the Jem starter ship is indeed a T5U Bugship, so that means that they should be able to get the bug pets for the carriers, hurrah!

Also had a bit of a rummage in the things like completed reps (2 only, 3 for the Vanguard Jems), your crew starting with everyone wearing a set of the Jem ground gear from boldly they rode etc.

White also works a bit like tribbles, it's consumable, but lasts an hour so will take a while to get through the initial stack

(Cardi ship is account wide from the getgo, Jem one needs the mastery completing)

Does this apply to all ships, or just these new ones?

Jem ships have a 6th mastery level that unlocks them across the account, so just them for now. May well end up being added to lockbox ships later though, who knows. (this is speculation on my part, nothing is announced on that front yet)

Romulans are getting access to a whole load of ships from their aligned faction with the expansion as well, which is nice.

Yesterday there was a twitch stream again, this time looking at the new ships, some new info came out of that. Firstly, Vanguard ships have a new mechanic, in the form of 2 NPC wingman ships (the same as the Vanguard Raider) that accompany your ship at all times, respawn if they die, can be ordered on attack runs, to heal etc.

Secondly, there's a new frigate pet for Vanguard Hangers which looks like this

and is a Vanguard Gunboat or something. No confirmation that it'll be playable later, but there are crossed fingers.

Thirdly the Carrier has a saucer separation mode like the Haakona/Galaxy, which means that you can have 7 NPC frigate goons following you around before you get to fleet support. So that's neat.

Main point of interest is a more detailed explanation of both the level 6 mastery unlock and the wingmen mechanic

Unique Vanguard Features
Level 6 Starship Mastery

Initially, Vanguard Starships will only be available for Jem’Hadar characters to claim and fly. However, we have created a new method by which they can be made available for all other characters on your account, regardless of their allegiance.

All Jem’Hadar Vanguard Starships are outfitted with a sixth level in their Starship Mastery progression, beyond the Starship Trait which is still unlocked by reaching level 5. This Level 6 Starship Mastery unlocks the availability for all characters on your account to claim and pilot the mastered starship.
Jem’Hadar Wingmen

Vanguard Starships are issued two loyal Jem’Hadar ace pilots. These expert pilots fly their own Jem’Hadar Vanguard Heavy Raiders in formation with you, never straying far from your side. Their extensive experience in team-based tactics allow them to execute powerful maneuvers for you.

Here are the special maneuvers they may be ordered to perform:

Polaron Strafing Maneuver
Micro-warp to your side, then initiate a forward-facing scatter volley barrage dealing a large amount of damage to any foes in a wide area ahead of you.
Structural Reinforcement Maneuver
Increase Shield Resistance and apply rapid Hull Healing for several seconds.
May target any ally, including your other Wingman.
Divergent Shielding Maneuver
Focuses on a targeted foe, draining their Shields over several seconds while also weakening their Shield Resistance.

All Maneuvers share a cooldown, and only one may be active at a time. Wingmen may not be ordered to attack specific targets, but will instead rapidly update their targeting parameters based on your chosen target.

If destroyed in combat, each Wingman will automatically rejoin you after a short lockout period has passed.

And now that Tribble is open to non-LTS, some impressions (editing over the next few hours):

Hur'q on the ground can suck ALL the dicks. The spiders we've already seen are either a lesser caste like worker termites, or they're some kind of war beast. The Hur'q proper (or higher caste) are approximately bipedal xenomorph crossed with an Indominus Rex looking things. Twisted, moist, naked except some wrist-mounted technology, lightning fast, and with a fighting style somewhat akin to a carjacking. They get in your face with melee and PBAOE and can rapidly annihilate an away team in an enclosed space.

Ensign units are the spiders, they have an explosion trick they didn't have in past encounters where killing them is almost as bad as letting them chew your ankles. Lieutenant units have a PBAOE of some sort. Commander units have a targeted cone/beam attack with similar effects, but aside from being hard to put down didn't seem as dangerous as the lieutenants.

Their ships, meanwhile, are interesting. Cryptic is much better at making engaging space enemies than ground usually, anyway. I've only seen one class of ship aside from the swarmers (which still do nothing but try to climb up your tailpipe and die), a Vecrid Hive. Had no shields, but instead gained buffs like "Reactive Shielding - Aft" and "Reactive Shielding - Left" as it took damage, making it incredibly durable despite having no shields.

The Tutorial takes place during the Battle of Bajor, starting on the other side of the wormhole as Odo and Weyoun promote your character to First, and then following the Jem'hadar charge at the end of the mission. Your character is on a secret mission to capture the Tzenkethi admiral behind the genocide campaign and then destroy the station before it falls into Alliance hands, answering directly to Odo.

Second mission is a summit on DS9 about the Hur'q situation. Apparently since the last FE, there have been Hur'q attacks in the Alpha Quadrant and the Alliance didn't do dick - Ferenginar and Cardassia were both attacked, and it was an alliance of the Ferengi, Cardassians, and Lukari l that have been doing most of the work. The Klingons want to sit the war out, but Martok is still rallying warriors to fight.

Voice acting jobs:

Odo is ok.

Weyoun is distinctly unenthusiastic, like a lot of the Voyager crew.

Garak is delightful, and still doing his "oh but a tailor" schtick.

Rom is also good, but he's an exposition dump about the Ferengi-Cardassian-Lukari alliance. He's written cleverly - adept at using Ferengi norms to drag their culture kicking and screaming towards doing the right thing. For example, he has the Board of Liquidators seizing weapons and ships from captains who won't fight and selling them to ones that will, and is arranging allied defense contracts to get Ferengi ships mobilized in the war.

Kira is awkward, but better than Weyoun. She's also an exposition dump for a plot lead that seems to be pointing towards Kai Opaka, who was left on Gaia.

Bashir hasn't had any play time with Garak yet, and there's no O'Brien, so while he's probably the second most show-accurate portrayal of the lot, he's infuriating because... Well, Bashir is infuriating. He was jus talking about his private medical practice on Trill and I wanted to punch him in his genetically enhanced teeth.

Quark is unenthusiastic, but not as bad as Weyoun. No play time with Odo yet, so we'll see.

Leeta's ok. No complaints, the voice actress has done a good job considering she's been the vapid dabo girl version, the comic book villain mirror universe version, and now a more sophisticated (but still pretty dumb) "real" Leta.

Want a 3d print of your ship but don't want to spend your children's college fund? They've added three cheaper options: $200 color printed (rather than painted like the $500 ones), and then the same thing in 7" and 4" for $99 and $20, respectively. I just set aside $20 on a 4" USS Vindicator, because that's cheaper than an Eaglemoss ship and only a little smaller.

The Ennis dude with the fucked up face and Kai Opaka. Not sure if either is the original voice actor or not, but passable in both cases and better than some of the headlining actors. Opaka has a new orb sent just in the last few decades called the Orb of Peace, which united the immortal Ennis prisoners.

Also... megaspoiler

Sisko?! I'm kicking myself in the nuts for turning my sound off at the end of Armistice, but Kira and Opaka are watching the wormhole. A subtitle says, "Nerys… Opaka." Opaka calls the voice Emissary and Kira calls it Benjamin. Whatever the voice is, it wasn't the Prophets themselves but the Emissary that's been appearing to them and steering events on both sides of the wormhole.

Going to blitzkrieg through the Gamma Front with my main and have the speakers on for that one this time.

Edit: Patch dropped in the middle of my speedrun, but after finishing it, the voice from the wormhole is full of reverb and distortion. If it's Avery Brooks, it's beyond recognition, and could well be quote mined like Odo's original "we have to talk" or some of the TOS characters.

Kira has stepped down as Kai and Opaka took her place (I suppose as the position is elected but for life, she can still technically claim the office?). Kira's Starfleet commission from the last few episodes of DS9 is reinstated, she's promoted to Captain, and given the Defiant because Kurland's voice actor can't be used without violating the union contracts for all the show reprisals they keep signing desperately needed elsewhere.

You join the Defiant, Garak's fleet (because a council member of a civilian government of a nation that was disarmed by a treaty needs a top of the line dreadnought with dedicated cruiser and escort, I guess?), and Odo's personal ship (no sarcasm here - the previous missions have established that Odo lacks the other Founders' distaste for solids, he goes out among the Vorta and Jem'hadar as a leader rather than a god, and apparently even with client races. Offhand mention that he brokered the Dosi's peaceful entry into the Dominion in dialog). Target is a derelict Jem'hadar station and mined-out moon that have nothing of interest to anyone in the galaxy, but must be desperately protected from the Hurq for reasons Odo doesn't seem interested in sharing.

Get a look at Dominion politics as a twisted mirror of the Federation's (example: They will not interfere with the affairs of a member world, even protecting them from hostile attack, without formal invitation through official challenge. And if the world can't ask because, say, the Jem'hadar fleet answering the distress call is jamming communications, then, oh well, they'll watch the world burn.

Also getting a sense that Odo has been changed by the Link far more than the other way around. He's callous and while he doesn't hate solids like the other Founders, he has a distinct lack of regard for what happens to them. The Dominion is clearly doing horrific things here, but Odo makes excuses.

Mega spoiler twist:

The Dominion pulled a trick from StarCraft's Dominion - they have emitters that lure Hur'q to a planet and drive them in a mindless rage. They use them against rebel planets, but Odo himself also used one against Bajor to trigger the attack and trick the Alliance into the war. Kira flips her shit at this knowledge, gives Odo the beating he deserves, and then leaves.

Cool reward from this mission: Ground version of the Azura II com code, beams in a Karemma commerce kiosk with all the functions.

Want a 3d print of your ship but don't want to spend your children's college fund? They've added three cheaper options: $200 color printed (rather than painted like the $500 ones), and then the same thing in 7" and 4" for $99 and $20, respectively. I just set aside $20 on a 4" USS Vindicator, because that's cheaper than an Eaglemoss ship and only a little smaller.

Today I spent the $20 on a steak, because they were actually $25, and shipping was $56 and change, for a total of $80 and change for a model of my ship a little smaller than my Eaglemoss ships.

On that subject, Eaglemoss has still not made their Odyssey model available and I keep rubbing money on the website but it doesn't work.

I'd like to introduce you all to STO's best mission ever. Ever. Yes, better than that one. And that whole series. Really.

Short version: The Ferengi from The Magnificent Ferengi (Minus Galen, because (exact quote) "Galen' isn't here. He shot the hostage last time. He's not invited.") plus the player go on a whacky heist to steal a secret "package" from the flagship of the rogue Iconian Tkhet (the one that Kahless fought).

Most of the mission plays out in the style of Renegade's Regret, as you jump from character to character, using their unique abilities to go through the challenges of the mission. Leck steals the whole damn thing. He's not on the same mission, he's on a quest to strike a badass pose while things explode, and after several very destructive but non-explosive attempts he accomplishes the above, walking in slow motion away from his own overloaded weapon while flipping cool guy Holo shades on his face.

I did that mission last night and and was chuckling the entire way through. I've been loving this expansion so far, I think the VO work is even better as well, seems cryptic have really got a handle on getting the performance they need.

I did that mission last night and and was chuckling the entire way through. I've been loving this expansion so far, I think the VO work is even better as well, seems cryptic have really got a handle on getting the performance they need.

If you got the mega pack with the Cardi ships, you may want to give their frigates a spin. 3x Spiral Wave Disruptor beams 1x Photon Torp front, 360-deg spiral disruptor rear, Torpedo Spread and some Suppression skill that lowers enemy accuracy.

late edit: nevermind, don't bother with the cardassian frigates. or the default gunboats. or most of the other pets. I had assumed that Cryptic had fixed the whole "most hangar pets don't know how to full impulse and will be fashionably late to every fight ever" bug, but they have not. I guess I'm gonna shelve this JH carrier until it's fixed (which probably means forever).

Reputation tier 6 will be retroactively added to *all* reputations, not just new ones going forward, so enjoy the biggest non-fleet goalpost move the game's ever seen. Tier 6 gives a lot of stuff: Immediately upon reaching T6 you get an improved version of all the traits from the reputation, increased damage of its set weapons, a unique emote, a fleet ship module and a skill retrain token. T6 project unlocks include an account-wide project cost reduction, alternate vanity shield colors, and set weapons in alternate damage types.

The retroactive cap bump means a renewed demand for all past marks, which could be a problem since so many of them have shitty availability. But there's a boon here, too, since now all queues will reward any marks... with a catch. You have to use the new random queue picker. No telling what mission you get, but stick it out and you get that mission's normal rewards, plus a bunch of extra marks (50-250 on normal, 70-350 on advanced) for any rep of your choice, and extra dilithium (500-2500, 700-3500). This reward exceeds almost all queues on their own outside of the daily bonuses, so one would hope that means it will be a popular thing, and it definitely appeals to me more than another six months of the same two fucking queues forever.

Also some right-now shipwank:

New Orleans-class recon destroyer. This is a canon name, but not the canon class - the New Orleans-class was a kitbash of Galaxy parts and random office junk that was used as a Wolf 359 wreck, this is a vague throwback like some of Cryptic's designs, but is still a distinctly 2410 design.

Klingons get in on the action, too:
Ketha-class recon destroyer. Gives the Klingons the open-hull treatment from the Vengeance and Crossfield classes, but otherwise looks fairly forgettable to me.

The whole "tactical-slanted science vessel" recon thing is over, these are straight up 4/3 escorts with tactical commanders. They do get +10 weapons/aux and have LTC science and LTC universal/intel, so they are slanted towards science at least.

Romulans? Yeah, Romulans can go suck it. Jem'hadar can suck what's left after the Romulans are done. I worry this is confirmation of the worry that opening up T5/6 Fed and KDF ships to faction allies means bundles will be just Fed and KDF.

Random queues are cool but there is already a sizeable list of ones that are far too annoying to PuG on advanced.

I'm also concerned about not being able to choose between ground and space. Thankfully I have a decent rifle but that's about it - my focus all goes toward space because I enjoy space a lot more. Not too mention all the specialization points I have focused on it.

Honestly, for the rewards, I don't see a great incentive to bother random on anything but normal. The first (however many days it takes to hit T6) are going to be, for most people, an exercise in hitting as many reps as possible, because rather than one new reputation we effectively have to level ALL of them (plus the certainly inevitable new one). A daily bonus on a normal queue will more than cover a daily and usually two hourlies, and the 50 mark minimum bonus will cover a daily and an hourly with some leftover, and if you get any of the higher bonuses you'll be set on that rep for at least a couple days and maybe a week.

Advanced is all well and good when I'm unlocking an item, and in those cases I'll usually chain queues while camping that faction's battle/adventure zone.

Officially announced: Walker-class Light Exploration Cruiser
Yes, this was in a lockbox. But this version is weird. It scales from tier 1 to 4 as you level, letting you progress a good way to the endgame without changing ships repeatedly.

Not officially announced

Discovery shuttle
This... uh... thing?
This other thing?

And a big pile of ships from Battle of the Binary Stars
Malachowski-class
Nimitz-class
Shepard-class
Engle-class

And a 2010 version of the Nimitz, the Europa-class

And for non-feds:

NOPE.

This is another alternate-start micro-faction for Feds. The lockbox and starter pack have nothing for KDF and only allied stuff for Romulans or Jem'hadar.

No recruit event. Kind of a mercy since the last one was especially brutal. Three race choices: Human, Vulcan, Alien. Get the Discovery uniform for free. The uniform is updated with some more customization options to allow the variations seen in season 2 promos. Scan animation is cool, beam in looks like a warp flash.

Starter ship is the Malachowski-class, a smaller but bulkier looking take on the Miranda with no rollbar. Comes with cool pulsing beam weapons and TOS style torpedoes.

Microfaction content:

Tutorial is literally the default Fed one with a Discovery skin. Starfleet Academy has a retexture, the cadets are replaced with Discovery races, Elisa Flores is now Sylvia Tilly, but 90% of the dialog is unchanged. The final test is in a holodeck, which wasn't invented in 2235... You still get First Officer and still lead your class in a toast. Unlike the default one, Vulcans don't get a different toast, they don't salute, and they do join in the drinking. Tilly made a joke about Irish people, to which my stoic and logical Vulcan said, "Bitch you're a pale readhead with freckles I'd think twice before you talk shit about an Irishman to his face."

During the flight to your ship (Malachowski-class Light Cruiser), Tilly drools over a Crossfield-class. She has nice things to say about the Malachowski, though, unlike Flores's pessimistic dismissal of the Miranda.

Tutorial proceeds exactly like the default one with different sets and effects (following the TOS and Kelvin content, the "It actually looked like that in 2235" conceit is in full play) - freighter rescue (SS Fortuna, captain is Cyrano Jones from TOS/TAS). Discovery-style Klingons instead of standard, more on them later.

I had to delete my character three times because the mission stuck on "Equip your Rifle." Slightly different scene in the corridor fight, a cutscene with some cool animations, but still the exact same sequence of events. Captain is captured, used as a hostage, orders you to fire on his com signal. Klingon captain has a badass line ("Spoken like a Klingon. Now die like one.")

While Tilly takes Flores' role in the early tutorial, your actual First Officer is Evelyn Savea, the tactical officer who everyone thought would get XO.

Instead of the Vega attack, you go through the exact same thing on Corva with Klingons instead of Borg, and a mine instead of whatever that thing the Borg were building is. Cube is replaced with a fleet battle. Tilly doesn't get to stay on the ship when you get command.

Two missions, standard stuff, fighting Discovery Klingons. Second mission ends abruptly with the deployment of some kind of superweapon you never actually see, flash to white and you wake up in Daniels' temporal observatory before being timejumped forward to take the place of some cadet-captain who died defending Vega. Just like in AoY.

Universal missions:

Two missions, both simulations of the microfaction missions. Ends with the same flash to white, then you're dumped back to sector space.

Queue event seems to have broken level-banding, I ended up in an instance with a bunch of lieutenant commanders and my swarmers were obliterating everything in sight.

Also a new queue event not mentioned in blogs: A globalized version of the Hurq planetary assault, so you can farm gamma marks from anywhere.

Randoms are... hit or miss. They seem to fill out groups for people waiting on specific queues first. After 5 runs, I got 2 of the same queues I run all the time, 2 Starbase 1s, and Bug Hunt of all damn things.

Enemy factions:

Discovery Klingons (House of Mok'Ican'tevenbringmyselftocarehonestly). Ground groups seem to be the same as modern Klingons minus Targ Handlers, and with Swordsmasters and Dahar Masters renamed but otherwise the same. Units have those recurved Bat'leths and the handled mini-bat'leth looking knives in place of Mek'leths, and spikey show-accurate guns.

Space version is a straight ass copy of modern Klingons. The cruisers have bio-neural warheads, a technology Voyager brought back from the Delta Quadrant 140 years after Discovery.

They do have a new and very nice cloak/decloak animation.

Overall feel: It REALLY feels like they were making something else, and then halfway through CBS called and wanted an active tie-in with Discovery. I say CBS rather than Cryptic because A. while Cryptic is slow to pick up loose plot threads they're also slow to completely shift gears, and B. this doesn't even feel like a Cryptic cash grab, because there's hardly any cash to grab with a $7.50 starter pack and a standard T6 cruiser.

They're calling the campaign a "progressive release." We'll see if it's more like Victory is Life's two or three featured episodes, or more like the Dividian/Breen/Dominion weekly series.